Luke retains lead despite mixed fortunes at Silverstone
Rising star Luke Browning retained his lead in F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost standings despite mixed fortunes on track at Silverstone.
Luke took a lead of 57 points into the sixth weekend of the season on the back of a solid weekend at Thruxton and qualified in fourth spot around the short National circuit in his Fortec Motorsport-run car.
Having been involved in a race long battle with James Hedley and Abbi Pulling in race one, Luke kicked off his weekend with a fourth place finish in race one – a fine result in itself considering that the front wing of his car picked up damage over the course of the race.
With only eight drivers finishing a chaotic opening, Luke secured pole for the second race of the weekend and would control proceedings from the moment the lights went out to secure victory despite running on older tyres than some of his rivals.
Unfortunately, having taken his place on the top step of the podium, Luke was then given a time penalty for exceeding track limits which meant he was dropped from first place down to a hugely unrepresentative fifth place in the end results.
Undeterred, Luke saw off the challenge of Hedley in the early stages of the opening race to maintain fourth place and would hold the position through to the finish to pick up more valuable points towards his championship total.
That means Luke now holds a lead of 33 points with eight races still to run over the remaining three rounds.
“It just didn’t really go to plan, we didn’t have the pace that we expected – but that wasn’t necessarily our fault – we were very close in qualifying and all throughout practice,” he said. “I knew that Thruxton and Silverstone would sort of level it out a little bit because they’re not so much skill tracks – they’re not so much drivers tracks.
“They’re easier to get your head around and to be quick at, and they’re not as technical. We knew it’d be a bit more difficult to just be able to take pole and win, but we’re looking forward to getting into the last quarter of the season now.
“The plan is now to focus on qualifying, and as long as we’re starting on the front row we should be fine for the next few races.”